Thursday, October 28, 2004
Letters, Lord do I Get Letters!
Two from the inbox:
And this one from a field grade officer and OIF vet (I'm not sure if he's still in Iraq)
There may be an exodus if Kerry's elected. But it will be difficult to pin it on Kerry, if it happens early in his term...I think Bush/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz will get a share of the blame for increasing OPTEMPO to unsustainable levels - which I think is reasonable.
Ultimately, there's no getting around the fact that the Iraq garrison was supposed to be around 50,000 now, but we're still up around 130,000. I think that's a major planning-resource disconnect.
If I leave, it will have more to do with micro-issues, poor reserve component retirement benefits, and military-employer conflicts - as well as an unwillingness to sustain a deployment every 4-5 years as a guard officer. Kerry won't have much to do with it. I enjoyed my service under Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II alike.
Ultimately, we support the Commander in Chief, whatever party he's from.
If Kerry wins, I plan to do my damnedest to help make him look good.
Your item "Hey, While We're on the Subject...
How come it took the New York Times to break the First
Command and American Amicable story?" is right on.
The Army Times even published an article on this
subject quoting our good friend MAJ Patrick Swan and
then failed to mention that he is a former First
Command agent. I think he might be a "former agent"
only because he is currently an activated reservist. I
noticed that the week after the softball editorial
that failed to ID First Command, that First Command
ads once again reappeared in the Army Times. The Army
Times has not responded to letters to them, nor
published my letter to the editor asking them to
provide full disclosure on Patrick Swan.
And this one from a field grade officer and OIF vet (I'm not sure if he's still in Iraq)
I was with one of the Task Force Bullet units policing up some of the millions of tons of ordnance around that country. To hear a presidential candidate so badly distort our efforts -- when he knows he's telling lies -- is extremely insulting to me. I just can't take another president that uses the military for props & political convenience, and whose administration can't be trusted to find the truth when given the PLGRed coordinates. 8 years of it during the prime of my career was more than enough. I suspect I'm not alone. If he's elected there will be an exodus, IMHO.
There may be an exodus if Kerry's elected. But it will be difficult to pin it on Kerry, if it happens early in his term...I think Bush/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz will get a share of the blame for increasing OPTEMPO to unsustainable levels - which I think is reasonable.
Ultimately, there's no getting around the fact that the Iraq garrison was supposed to be around 50,000 now, but we're still up around 130,000. I think that's a major planning-resource disconnect.
If I leave, it will have more to do with micro-issues, poor reserve component retirement benefits, and military-employer conflicts - as well as an unwillingness to sustain a deployment every 4-5 years as a guard officer. Kerry won't have much to do with it. I enjoyed my service under Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II alike.
Ultimately, we support the Commander in Chief, whatever party he's from.
If Kerry wins, I plan to do my damnedest to help make him look good.
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